I spent this lovely, windy afternoon in the garden harvesting potatoes (red, Yukon gold and banana), beets, spaghetti squash, pumpkins, acorn squash and onions. The wilderness surrounding the garden was breathtaking… The leaves on the surrounding aspen poplars have turned bright yellow and they almost seemed to vibrate against today’s clear blue sky. My sweet peas are finally in full fragrant bloom and the sunflowers swayed and danced in the wind…

Despite the back-breaking labor of digging potatoes, I always enjoy the process. The simple turning of the soil to reveal these tasty treasures always reminds me of an Easter Egg hunt, where one never knows what will be revealed under the black earth…

This Yukon Gold wins the prize both for size and most interesting shape…!!!

A small mountain of banana potatoes…

Another prize-winner for interesting shape, this time in the tomato category…

I harvested only two tomato plants today. Only twelve more to go! (What was I thinking planting all of these???)
I hauled three wheel barrels full of ‘spent plants’ a bit of a distance to my compost pile (behind the chicken coop, still in progress) where they will decompose and be dug into the garden soil next spring to nourish next years garden vegetables…

It was a wonderful, productive and satisfying day. I still have much more to harvest but I think that today’s labor was a very good start!